We had an RSF Pearl installed in 2018 and use it 24/7 to heat the main level of our high altitude CO home in the winter. LOVE this ZC fireplace, HATE the blower. What came with the fireplace is a "tangential fan blower" (long squirrel cage with a shaded pole AC motor).
Aside from the extremely weak airflow that makes it out the top, the blower motor seems to suffer from the heat where it's located. We only got one season out of the original blower before I had to completely disassemble and clean it to get it working again. Sometime in 2019, I bought a second unit I could swap out while servicing the other. The shaded pole motor armature is supported by a couple small oil impregnated bronze bushings and the oil gets cooked out, cakes up, and the motor will eventually seize (if you can stand the noise it will make before doing so). Without the blower, the fireplace is basically decorative.
Seems that RSF added this fan as an afterthought. It's an Ebm-Pabst brand that is essentially attached with two self tappers to a sheet of stainless bent into a right angle. $300 please.
The fan lives under/behind the firebox. I'm open to any suggestions for a better solution. With the two blower units I have, I am basically swapping them out monthly at this point.
Aside from the extremely weak airflow that makes it out the top, the blower motor seems to suffer from the heat where it's located. We only got one season out of the original blower before I had to completely disassemble and clean it to get it working again. Sometime in 2019, I bought a second unit I could swap out while servicing the other. The shaded pole motor armature is supported by a couple small oil impregnated bronze bushings and the oil gets cooked out, cakes up, and the motor will eventually seize (if you can stand the noise it will make before doing so). Without the blower, the fireplace is basically decorative.
Seems that RSF added this fan as an afterthought. It's an Ebm-Pabst brand that is essentially attached with two self tappers to a sheet of stainless bent into a right angle. $300 please.
The fan lives under/behind the firebox. I'm open to any suggestions for a better solution. With the two blower units I have, I am basically swapping them out monthly at this point.
